On Mon, 6 Jun 1994 16:55:00 EDT "Gerald M. Phillips, Ph.D."
<[log in to unmask]> said:
 
>The  use of  names on  this  list for  commercial purposes  and sale  of
>software is an absolute violation of my right to privacy.
 
The "solicitations"  were for new  versions of  the product this  list is
discussing, not for  a thigh cream or  law firm. I will  not dispute that
you considered them  a waste your time, but they  were not off-topic, nor
do I understand  why you claim we  have violated your privacy.  I get ads
from Dell on a regular basis because  I bought a computer from them. Some
are  interesting, most  are  not,  but I  can't  imagine  how they  could
possibly  violate my  privacy (not  unless the  postman peeps  through my
window while delivering  them, anyway). And it doesn't  upset me, because
it  is clearly  reasonable  for Dell  to  have assumed  that  I might  be
interested in memory upgrades, software or accessories for my PC. If they
sent me ads for body lotions, it would be another matter.
 
Similarly, the reason we post L-Soft announcements to LSTOWN-L is that we
assumed that LISTSERV  list owners are interested in  being kept informed
of the  kind of migration  and licensing decisions their  home institutes
are faced with, so  that, for instance, they can have  a discussion on an
equal footing with  their postmaster, when the topic  of downsizing comes
up and  management starts suggesting  that all the  lists may have  to be
closed by  a certain date. If  a significant amount of  list owners would
rather not  receive such messages,  we will exclude LSTOWN-L  from future
announcements with  our apologies.  But we  have posted  announcements to
this list from day  one, some of them quite long, and  never got a single
complaint.  In fact,  we  used  to get  positive  feedback  and "keep  me
informed" requests. So  I assume the reason for this  outburst is that we
have included pricing information in this latest set of announcements.
 
The reason we did that is that the lack of dollar amounts in our previous
announcements was the single largest  complaint from our customers. After
each major  announcement, we would  receive hundreds of requests  for the
"critical missing piece of information".  Customers urged us to compile a
condensed price list, keep it up to date,  and tack it at the end of each
product announcement  for quick reference. So  we gave in and  decided to
try that. If this  turns out to upset people, we will  just revert to the
previous policy and  not publish prices. For the record,  we do not think
that excluding  the prices has a  negative impact on our  sales, at least
not when  the announcements are  posted to L-Soft lists.  Past experience
has shown that people contact us to get the prices anyway - it just saves
time for everyone to include price lists with the announcements.
 
Anyway, I apologize  for the inconvenience this may have  caused. We will
do whatever the majority thinks is most appropriate.
 
  Eric